I am researching the tricky issue of British disruptive camo schemes as applied to Polish Shermans of the 2nd Squadron or the 4th Armoured Regiment (the 'Skorpions') during the period of 1943-45. This takes them from North Africa to Italy.

The problem is the confusion caused by the various interpretations of what Shermans 'wore' during this period - even given the fairly unambiguous General Orders that were Issued by the army at the time. There seems to be some disagreement over colours!

My initial conviction was that the Poles while in Egypt in the winter of 1943 had Shermans painted in the standard scheme of that theatre of that time - a base of SAND with a disruptive pattern of LIGHT-GREEN.

It should be noted that the LIGHT-GREEN seems to have been an alternative that was used in place of the other standard colour, BLUE-BLACK.

When the unit later took part in the Italian campaign there is some dispute as to whether it retained this sand and light-green pattern OR over-painted it with the newer LIGHT-MUD (a browner sand colour) and BLUE-BLACK pattern which was given as a modified scheme by the army in anticipation of the Italian campaign.

Can anyone give me any advice on the correctness of the above schemes or provide any evidence to the contrary please?